The Goddess's Laugh
by atrfla
Summary: When a baby laughs for the first time, a fairy's life is born. A human baby's first laugh only produces one fairy… normally. But once upon a pixie, there was a baby goddess, and her first laugh produced nine fairies- eight of which safely made it to the warm seasons of Pixie Hollow. This is the story of eight sisters, some happy, some not- narrated by each in turn…
1. Chapter 1

**When a baby laughs for the first time, a fairy's life is born. A human baby's first laugh only produces one fairy… normally. But once upon a pixie, there was a baby goddess, and her first laugh produced ****_nine _****fairies- eight of which safely made it to the warm seasons of Pixie Hollow. This is the story of eight sisters, some happy, some not- narrated by each in turn…**

Ch. 1: Aqua

Before I was born, there was nothingness. A big void, without sound, without light, without _anything._

And then, there simply _was._

A laugh echoed through my prison, the void. I still saw nothing and remained in my hunched-over position, but at least I knew that the laugh was here to spirit me away.

I had sensed, rather than seen, heard or felt, the other not-yet-fairies leave one by one. I knew that whenever I heard for the first time, it would be my turn to enter the world.

And now there was a laugh gathering me up, and it was sweet and girlish and- _big_. And I was flouting and- oh! I hit something! Thrilled by my first touch, I floated on, the wind at my back still echoing the laugh that filled my ears like rushing water.

I floated down, landed on a hard surface- _another_ touch- and felt a sprinkling of something on my hunched back. I suddenly felt an inexplicable urge to leave the fetal position that I had assumed for who-knows-how-many years.

Knowing that it was _my _time to become alive, to be a living being, strengthened me. I-

I sat up.


	2. Chapter 2

Ch. 2: Kitty

There were faces looking down upon me and there were seven- _seven?_- faces that were ar my level, with wide and curious eyes set in slightly round and pinkish faces with decidedly sharp chins and classical, freckled noses. They looked like-

"Sisters," the whisper went up. I widened my own eyes. _Sisters? There are no sisters- each fairy is selected by a laugh! No laugh chooses two or three- or four- or-_

"Eight sisters!" the whisper continued.

_No! _I wailed inwardly. _Each fairy is supposed to be special!_

Then the air sparkled, and I was dazzled by four beautiful balls of light that twirled and swirled through the air, riding the breezes that swept the leafy clearing. They met a few wing-lengths in front of me, uniting in one big golden explosion.

A queen appeared, glittering more than the sun itself. She held out her hands to us and said in a grave tone that seemed more appropriate for eight funerals than to eight births, "Born of laughter, clothed in cheer. Happiness has brought you here. Welcome to Pixie Hollow, my little ones, born of a goddess's first laugh."

The whispers, which had died out when the queen arrived, started up again.

"A goddess?"

"How _divine!_"

"Very funny, Rosetta."

The queen waved her hand, and while many golden toadstools popped up around us, she floated over and pulled on something behind me. My wings. She took my hand and, without warning, pulled me up from my sitting position and launched me into the air.

From my fluttering, hovering viewpoint above, I could see her doing the same to all of my sisters. One by one they followed me into the air.

All except one.

A girl with ragged hair of different lengths in every spot had wings, but they refused to fly. I admired her hair, which (although it was the same beautiful light brown as mine) was straight and pretty instead of curly and unruly like mine, and it made her look like a beautiful mad scientist.

The girl flapped her wings and strained to fly, but she stayed firmly on the ground, even when the queen sprinkled some more golden glitter- the words _pixie dust_ came to mind- on her quivering clear wings.

"Come down, little ones," the queen called, giving up. "And leaders of the talents, come forward."

We flew down and landed just as multiple fairies flew forward from the clusters on flowers and leaves surrounding the clearing. They flitted down, objects in their hands. The objects, which they lay on the toadstools, glowed with fierce golden glows almost as bright as the queen's. I looked at them as the fairies went back to their seats. The glowing objects included a flower, an egg, a small whirling tornado, and a hammer.

I found my voice, and thankfully it came out clear and strong. "What are these?"

"These," the queen said softly, "will help you find your talent."


	3. Chapter 3

Ch. 3: Tiger Lily

"What's a _talent_?" the fairy with short, curly light brown hair pressed.

"What you are good at, and what you will do here in Pixie Hollow," the queen answered smoothly.

"But why do we _need_ one?" continued the small fairy- _my sister._

"Why don't we start the talent-finding," the queen changed the subject. She turned to one of my other sisters, with short, pin-straight light brown hair. "My dear, why don't you go first? Just- touch one. And if it doesn't work out, then touch another."

The girl reached for a glowing flower and lightly tapped a golden petal. The flower lost its glow and sank to the toadstool it had hovered over.

The girl gasped and shrank back in fear, but Queen Clarion- suddenly I knew her name- touched the girl's shoulders. "Try another, dear."

The fairy extended her hand and grasped a fistful of a small woven bag full of pixie dust. Instead of losing its glow and falling, the bag rose into the air, glowing brighter and brighter until finally the glow diminished. My sister looked shocked and happy at the same time.

"A new dust-keeper fairy," Queen Clarion observed. "My dear, your name shall be Sarah and you shall work in the dust depot. Terrence?"

A handsome-ish blond fairy wearing an acorn cap flew down, took the newly named Sarah's hand, and pulled her up into the air to land on a large leaf with the six other dust keepers who had attended the ceremony.

"Darling?" Queen Clarion asked the next girl, no, _sister_, who had long shiny black hair. Only two sisters had black hair- _I _had brown like the other six of us. "Why don't you try?" With a wave of her hand, the flower rose and started glowing again, and a new pixie-dust bag appeared.

My next sister didn't hesitate. She marched over to the spinning tornado and cupped it in her hand. Soon she was engulfed in the spinning golden wind, and just as quickly, it dispersed, leaving my sister grinning and excited.

"A new Fast-Flying fairy," intoned Queen Clarion. "You shall work as a keeper of the winds here in Pixie Hollow. I hereby dub you Sasha. Vidia?"

A fairy with a long black ponytail, a sharp nose and a decided, sour mouth flew down as fast as the fastest wind and beckoned. "Come on, _Sasha_." My sister followed her back up into the trees.

My next sister, who had a long brown mass of straight hair and a sidebang, became Glass the tinker fairy. The other black-haired sister, with rolling waves of shining hair, became Aqua, the water talent fairy. The inquisitive one with the curly, short, light brown hair was named Kitty the animal-talent fairy. And then it was just me, the one who couldn't fly, and a sister with a medium-length curtain of frizzy, thick, dark brown hair.

Queen Clarion beckoned to me. I gulped, but reached for the hammer that my sister Glass had chosen earlier. It stopped glowing and sank.

I bit my lip, trying the egg that Kitty had chosen and made crack open (she now cradled a tiny baby bird) and then the glowing ball of light. The snowflake. The rainbow, symbol of the fairly new Dust Alchemy talent. And then I tried the flower.

A stem grew out of the bottom and rooted itself firmly in the ground, glowing maniacally and flourishing.

"My dear," Queen Clarion said softly, "you are a Garden talent fairy, sworn to work with the plants as long as you are able. I name you… _Tiger Lily._ Rosetta? Please escort your new friend to your seat."

The pretty redheaded fairy who'd made the "How _divine!_" comment earlier flew down and looped her arm through mine, chattering, "Oh, am I _so _glad that there's a new Garden fairy. Maybe you'll have a talent for the tulips, they've been _so_ unruly lately, even _I _can't control them-"

"I'm sorry," I interrupted. "What's your name again?"

"Oh, my talkin' must have made you forget, sunflower!" she chirped as we lifted off and headed for a large pink flower. "I'm Rosetta, like the roses."

I nearly missed my next sister, the one with the frizzy hair, become Sunny the light fairy. But I tuned in when it was the last sister's turn. The flightless one.


	4. Chapter 4

Ch. 4: Zoë

My wings were a weight on my shoulders, literally. I couldn't _fly._ I was a fairy who couldn't _fly._ I wondered, if I didn't have a talent, what would they do to me? Would they… exile me? Would they force me into a talent that I wasn't talented at? Would they _kill_ me?

With that happy thought in mind, I almost boredly let my fingers brush across the bumpy surface of the floating egg. Nope. I tried the snowflake (nope). The hammer, the dewdrop, the tornado- nope, nope, nope. The rainbow glowed when I touched it, but I moved on, so in my groove that I didn't notice. The bag of dust stopped glowing but then people gasped, so I turned around and caught sight of the rainbow. It had grown so that there were now _two_ rainbows in the sky, one normal and one glowing with a fantastic golden light.

"Well!" Queen Clarion said, shocked, and I was pleased to have surprised her. "Zarina, please come down and meet Zoë. The firstborn Alchemist fairy."

A pretty fairy in a blue-and-golden lab coat flew out of nowhere. Her auburn hair was wild, just like my light brown mop. "Of course." She took my hand and guided me out of the clearing as Queen Clarion began her closing speech. Thankfully, we were walking. "So, you're Zoë. I'm Zarina- the first alchemist."

"Cool," I said.

"First, you need to come to the shop. You'll love it- although I will have to tell the Tinkers to build a room for you today."

"That's- um- nice of you." I smiled weakly. "Just one question."

"Shoot!"

"Can _you_ fly?"

"Yes, of course- can't you?"

"You weren't watching?"

"No, I'd just arrived when you touched the rainbow. Try to fly, maybe it was a malfunction," she suggested.

I flapped my wings, but my feet stayed solidly on the dirt.

She grinned. "You're flightless!"

I stared at my feet that would not leave the ground, wondering why she seemed so happy.

"Not for long," she continued.

I looked up at her, wondering. Could she…?

"We'll whip up some dust that can make you fly," she explained. We started walking down a spiral path, and she let go of me and withdrew papers from her pocket. "Just follow me."

She buried her nose in the papers, muttering, "Hmm… would healing dust be red? White? No, white's winter fairy talent… maybe it's only the blue dust that can heal a flightless pair of wings, but we'd only be able to heal them after a particularly good Autumn Revelry…"

I followed the mumbling Zarina until we came to a huge structure that looked like a rock at first glance- but it wasn't. It glittered where the sun came through the canopy of leaves overhead.

"This is pretty," I said, snapping Zarina out of her trance. She pocketed the papers and looked up.

"Hm? Oh! Yes! Welcome to the shop. It's an alchemist's workshop- and living quarters, too. Come on in."

I had to duck to get through the door, but I could stand tall in the main room. It wasn't much- just sparkling walls, a few windows and a bunch of hallways branching off. But I could sense that there was something better, a hidden treasure ready to be found, sitting in the hallways somewhere.

"Follow me," Zarina ordered, ducking into the second hallway on the left. After only a few moments of walking, she led me into a huge room that was bigger than the first one.

"Wow," I breathed, taking it all in. Lining the walls were gigantic vials, each with a mechanism at the bottom that would allow them to pour out their contents.

And their contents were the best part.

Glowing orange, yellow, blue and all the colors of the rainbow were _pixie dust_. Two different shades of blue were labeled _Water _and _Blue._ The pink was labeled _Garden_, and the orange, _Light_. The yellow, _Normal_, but the amberish was _Animal._ The purple and green were labeled _Fast Flying _and _Tinker_, in that order, and the white was _Winter._ That was only a few.

I noticed that the pink supply was suspiciously low. "What's wrong with the pink one?" I asked.

She looked. "Oh. Garden. The reason I was late was because I was delivering a huge shipment of pink dust to the flower fields. Your sister- what's-her-name, Lily or something?- will probably use some today."

"Can I help make some more?" I inquired.

She grinned. "Ready to dive in, huh? Great. I admire that. Okay, we need one flower petal for every three drops of extract…"


	5. Chapter 5

Ch. 5: Glass

Tinker Bell was real nice and energetic, and she laughed at my somewhat Southern accent and told me I sounded like the mentor of my sister Tiger Lily, Rosetta. She showed me to an upside-down teapot and bade me, "Go inside- you'll love it!"

I stepped in at her urging, and she bopped around, showing me the bed and the closet and how everything worked. Then she left me alone with instructions to create my clothes out of the leaf shifts from the closet.

I cut and cut and basted and sewed and hemmed and cut more until I had the perfect dress. One-shouldered, it didn't accentuate any curves I didn't have, and it ended just below my knees. It was absolutely breathtakin'.

The first thing I saw as I flew outside was a pair of male fairies- _sparrow men_, I believe they were called. One was large and bulky and grinned a _lot_, and looked like a giant, ravenhaired simpleton. The other was skinny and kinda cute, wore glasses made from copper and water, and sported a mop of ginger hair almost as wild as my new sister Zoë's.

They turned to greet me as I approached. "'Ey, you're the new Tinker!" the redhead exclaimed as I grew near. "Miss…"

"Glass," I said politely. "Where's Tinker Bell?"

"Over with Fairy Mary!" the black-haired one said, pointing to a pair of fairies flitting through the air above us. One was short and stout with reddish hair, and she looked like a cross between the two sparrow men before me- only female, of course. The other was tall, blond and slim… Tinker Bell!

"Thanks!" I called as I launched into the air. I nearly fell ungracefully a few times, but caught up to them.

The short one- Fairy Mary- was sayin', "I've never seen human tinkers before…" rather doubtfully.

"Oh, but Fairy Mary, it's _incredible_!" protested Tinker Bell. "They have _cars_ and _cell phones_- they're _ever_ so much better than messengers and wagons and boats. Lizzy's told me all about cell phones, and apparently if you have something called _reception_ you can contact anyone anywhere at any time-"

"Hello?" I interrupted.

Tinker Bell turned, spotted me, smiled, grabbed my arm, and pulled me up between the two of them. I almost fell- but she kept me steady, that Tink. "Fairy Mary, I forgot to tell you, we have a new Tinker!"

"So I see. What's your name, kettlepot?"

"It's her version of _sweetheart_," Tinker Bell whispered. My confusion must'a shown on my face, but once I knew what is was, I liked it. Maybe not the 'pot' part, though…

"Oh! Oh. I'm Glass."

"You sound like Rosetta," observed Fairy Mary. "Are you from the South?"

"I've been told," I started, but Tinker Bell interrupted me.

"Fairy Mary, it's so exciting- Glass was born from a goddess's laugh, and she has _seven_ sisters!"

"Seven!?" gasped Fairy Mary. Then she regained her composure. "Well, hopefully, you'll be just as good of a tinker as Tinker Bell, seeing you've been born from a goddess's first laugh." She turned to Tinker Bell. "Have you given her a house yet?"

Tinker Bell, who was fingering a lock of my hair, nodded. "Yep. And she made that dress. So, Glass, we'd better get you tinkering- see what you can do! I'll teach you the basics, like how to make an acorn-and-button teapot. But first, we need to get this hair under control."

"It isn't _that_ unruly," I protested in my 'Rosetta-like' accent.

"Maybe we can set someone to braiding it?" Tinker Bell suggested.

"Tinker Bell, I don't need it!" I insisted.

She grinned at me. "Call me Tink. Fairy Mary, can you send for Rosetta?"

"Of course, kettlepot," she said, zipping off.

I turned to Tinker Bell- _Tink_. "So, that teapot?" I prompted.

She smiled again. "Right!" she said, grabbing my arm and pullin' ungraceful me along, a big grin on both of our excited faces. "Here in Tinker Nook, we start out small, but who knows if you'll end up big?"


	6. Chapter 6

Ch. 6: Sasha

The moment the talent ceremony was over, Vidia and I blasted off, up and up and up and up and up, until we were high above Neverland and its clouds.

"Um, why are we up here?" I asked.

"We're going to Fast-Flier Village," she answered, pointing to a particularly lumpy cloud. "It's a common misconception that we live on land, but no way on the Second Star am I doing that. Follow me."

She zipped down with me on her tail. When we got closer, I saw that the lumps were, in fact, buildings made of a feathery-light white stone, and the whole cloud was, in fact, a cleverly disguised slab of rock that had been liberally sprinkled with pixie dust.

Vidia touched down gracefully; I, less so, but at least I didn't fall. "Welcome to Fast-Flier Village," she announced proudly.

There were lots of houses along the street, but from what I could tell, only 14 were inhabited.

Vidia led me to one of the uninhabited houses. "Welcome to your own personal-"

"Rock cloud house," I interrupted.

She deflated a little, becoming a little less sour too. "Yeah. I normally call them _cumulocottages_ or-" She let off a string of sciencey words that I didn't understand. "Ever since I spent time as a Tinker- _ugh_- well, I've been getting smarter. Anyway, mine's next door. I'll send for a Tinker to come help you make some clothes. Every Tinker wears this." She gestured to her dark purple shift and pants and curly shoes.

"What about my sister Glass?" I asked.

Vidia snorted. "She's new. Only experienced Tinkers know how to make _good_ Fast-Flier clothes. I'm going to call Tinker Bell."

She zipped off, leaving me to wander around Fast-Flier Village on my own.

I scurried down the street. I turned and-

_Oof!_

I ran into a tall fairy in purple. He had messily combed black hair and glittering brown eyes that sparkled with so much intelligence, it was like all of the words he had to say were clogged up behind them, shining like the Second Star to the Right. He had a smear of something golden on his chin- pixie dust? Honey? Either way, it only made his skin glow as golden-tan as the smear.

I stammered something intelligent, like, "Um, there's something on your face."

He laughed, a quick, sharp sound. "Oh, of course, it's honey, I always have honey on my face and I can never get it off. You're the new fairy, born of a goddess's laugh, my name is Elwood and I think yours is Sasha, right?"

I barely got out "Um, yeah, I'm Sasha," before he was off again. "Oh, that's a very cool name, short and sweet, I bet it's just like you, okay that was awkwardandIshouldbettergonowbyeSashaseeyousoon!" Then he was off- not as fast as Vidia, but he was definitely a faster talker.

And cuter, too.

**I'm having trouble writing the next chapter, which is Sunny the light fairy's. Iridessa isn't just the type of character I write. If anyone has any ideas on what to do, I'd appreciate it. Oh, and if you could notify all of your Fan Fic friends so that I have more than 5 reviews, that would be awesome! ~atrfla**


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